Wing assembly for toy airplanes

ABSTRACT

A wing assembly for a toy airplane including a pair of wing halves with interfitting inner ends that lie on the airplane fuselage, the inner end of each wing half including at least one projection with an enlarged head and at least one undercut recess so that the wing halves form an interlocking joint with each other.

nite States Patent 1 Staats et a1.

[ 51 May 29, 1973 WING ASSEMBLY FOR TOY AIRPLANES [75] Inventors: William A. Staats, Torrance; Denis V. Bosley, Palos Verdes Peninsula,

both of Calif.

[73] Assignee: Mattel, Inc., Hawthorne, Calif.

' [22'] Filed: July 19, 1972- [21] Appl. No.: 273,081

[52] US. Cl ..46/76 51] Int. Cl. ..A63h 27/00 [58] Field of Search ..46/31, 74, 76, 79;

[56] v References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 2,680,698 6/1954 Schnee ..46/3l UX Primary Examiner-Louis G. Mancene Assistant Examiner-Robert F. Cutting AttorneySeymour A. Scholnick l 5 ABSTRACT A wing assembly for a toy airplane including a pair of wing halves with interfitting inner ends that lie on the airplane fuselage, the inner end of each wing half including at least one projection with an enlarged head and at least one undercut recess so that the wing halves form an interlocking joint with each other.

11 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures This invention relates to flying toy airplanes with removable wing structures.

Flying toy airplanesare often constructed with wing structures that can be removed from the fuselage for compact storage. Even greater compactness of storage can be achieved by constructing the wing structure in two halves. However, good flying characteristics require that the wings be maintained in accurate relationship to one another and to the airplane. There is often only a small surface available on the fuselage for supporting the wings, so that the division of the wing into two halves can result in very little surface on the fuselage for supporting each wing in a manner to maintain it at an accurate position with respect to the other wing and to the fuselage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a wing assembly is provided which includes two separate wing halves for facilitating shipping and storage and which is constructed to accurately maintain the wing positions after mounting on the airplane fuselage. Each wing half, or'wing, has an inner end with projections and recesses that interfit those of the other wing to form a joint where the wings are mounted on the fuselage. The projections have enlarged heads and the recesses which receive them are undercut, so that the wings form an interlocking joint that prevents separation of the wings. The projections and recesses are formed for close interfitting to prevent movement of the wings toward and away from each other. In addition, the wings are thick enough so that the interlocking projections and recess walls prevent disengagement by one wing pivoting with respect to the other. In addition, adhesive labels are applied to the joint regions of the wings on the upper and lower faces thereof. The wing structure is mounted on an upper surface of a fuselage and held thereon by a pair of rubber bands that extend diagonally across the joint region of the wing structure.

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will best be understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a toy airplane constructed in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the wing structure of the airplane in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of the wing structure of FIG. 2, but without the fastening labels thereon;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a view taken on the line 6-6 of FIG. 3, but with the thickness dimension exaggerated, to show how the joint resists pivoting of the wing halves out of engagement with each other; and

FIG. 7 is a partial plan view of a wing structure constructed in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates a toy airplane constructed in accordance with the invention, which includes a fuselage 10, a wing structure 12, and a pair of rubber bands 14, 16

which hold the wing structure in place on the fuselage.

The wing structure includes a pair of wing sections or halves 18, 20 whose inner ends 181, 201 are joined together at the fuselage. As also indicated in the other FIGS. 2-6, the wings are formed with a dihedral at an angle A with the horizontal center portion of the wing structure with a predetermined sweep at an angle B between the leading edge and an imaginary laterally extending line 22 and with an appreciable camber all to provide a desired flight characteristic for the airplane. It is important to not only hold the wing halves in place on the fuselage, but to maintain them at the desired dihedral and sweep.

The inner ends 181 and 20I of the wing halves or wings are formed to interfit. Thus, the right wing 18 has three projections 24, 26, 28 which are received in three corresponding recesses 30, 32, 34 of the other wing 20. Similarly, the left wing 20 has four projections including 36, 38, which are received in corresponding recesses 42, 44, 46 of the right wing 18. Each of projections, such as projection 40, has an enlarged head portion 40H forming a pair of laterally extending ears and a narrow neck region 40N which is narrower than the head (as fuselage); Each recess is correspondingly formed so that the recess 46 is undercut to provide a I constricted throat 46T and a bottom region 463 wider than the throat and closely receiving the laterally extending ears of the projection. As a result, the inner ends of the wings form a true interlocking joint which prevents movement of the wings away from each other even in theabsence of other holding devices.

The airplane fuselage 10 has a wing-supporting surface 50 (FIG. 5) at the top of the fuselage which is convexly curved in one plane to closely match the camber of the wings. The wings have zero dihedral at their inner end portions which rest on the fuselage. A pair of ledges 52, 54 formed in front of and behind the wings closely locate the wings in a front-torear direction on the fuselage. In addition, the wings have cutouts 56, 58 (FIG. 3) which are received by the walls 52, 54 forming the ledges on the fuselage, so that the wings cannot shift more than a small fraction of an inch in a sideward direction on the fuselage. The rubber bands 14, 16 which hold down the wing structure to the fuselage have opposite ends looped about projections 60 (FIG. 1) which are located on either side of the fuselage. Although the wings can be simply interlocked and mounted on the fuselage by the rubber bands, a pair of labels 62, 64 is also provided which can be adhesively applied over the joint where the wings interlock.

The use of a truly interlocking joint at the inner ends of the wings results in close maintenance of the wing positions. If the inner ends of the wings were to form a mere interfitting joint, as where the projections were of a simple sawtooth shape instead of having enlarged ends, then the wings could pull apart from each other. This would result in not only an uncontrolled sweep angle, but also in an overall less secure holding.

The interlocking of the wings also helps to maintain correct dihedral. FIG. 6 illustrates the situation which occurs when one of the wings 20 begins to be pivoted,

as where a child pushes down on the tip of the wing 20. It should be noted that the thickness dimension is exaggerated in this figure. The wing tends to rotate about a point 70 at one edge of the fuselage 10. If such rotation were to proceed very far, as where the projection 40 moved to the position 40a then a wall or surface 72 of the projection which is adjacent to a throat portion 461" of the recess would move to the position 72a, where it would have to deflect the wall of the throat 46T. Of course, the wall 46T resists such deflection. Thus, the wall 46T prevents more than a minimal pivoting of the wings on one another, so that the dihedral of the wings is closely maintained. In order to prevent such pivoting that would change the dihedral, the thickness of the wings should be greater than any clearance between the projection 40 and walls of the recess 46 that would permit movement of the wings toward and away from each other. The wings are constructed of a somewhat resilient material such as polystyrene foam, and the projections and recesses are formed to provide substantially no clearance between the projections and recesses, at least in dimensions where clearance will allow the wings to move towards and away from each other. Such foam wings may be only about one-tenth inch in thickness, for a wing structure where the projections such as'40 are each about 1% inches long, but the fact that the projections have almost no clearance with the walls of the recesses means that dihedral is closely maintained. The joint regions may be formed at the same time by a die which cuts a unitary wing structure into the two wing halves 18, 20.

The airplane is typically packaged with the wing halves 18, 20 disassembled. A child assembles the wing structure by interfitting the inner ends and then applying the labels 62, 64 to the opposite faces of the wing structure over the joint region. He then places the wing structure on the wing-supporting surface 50 of the fuselage and installs the rubber bands 14, 16 to extend diagonally across the joint. The wings are securely held in place by the rubber bands, and both the rubber bands and labels supplement the interlocking joints to hold the wing halves at a predetermined position with respect to one another. The upper label 62 is especially useful in securing the wing halves together, inasmuch as it helps to prevent one wing from lifting out of engagement with the other. The other label 64 is also helpful, although the upper surface 50 of the fuselage does serve as a good backing against downward movement of the wings. It may be noted that the use of projections with enlarged heads results in convolutions which provide a long length of adjoining borders between the wing halves. This increases the peel strength which allows the labels to more securely hold the wing halves together. In addition, where the wing halves have a slight interference fit, there is a greater length of abutting surfaces to more securely hold the wings together. The wings are securely held, but can deflect under large forces to prevent breakage, the rubber bands permitting some deflection relative to the fuselage.

A variety of joint constructions can be utilized. FIG. 7 shows one example of a joint region for two wing halves 90, 92, wherein each wing half forms only one projection 94 or 96 and only one complete recess 98 or 100. As in the-case of the earlier described wing structure best shown in FIG. 3, the recess such as 98 is formed at least in part by one side of a projection 96.

Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated herein, it is recognized that modifications and variations may readily occur to those skilled in the art and consequently it is intended that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents.

What is claimed is:

l. A wing assembly for a toy airplane comprising:

a fuselage a pair of wing halves, each having an inner end for joining to the fuselage, a first of said wing halves including a pair of projections extending toward the second wing half, each projection having a laterally extending ear at its end, and the other wing half having at least two undercut slots which closely receive said laterally extending ears to prevent separation of the wing halves.

2. The wing assembly described in claim 1 wherein:

each of said projections includes a pair of laterally extending ears, and each of said slots is undercut on each side of its deepest part to closely receive said ears of said projections.

3. A wing assembly for a toy airplane comprising:

a fuselage a pair of wing halves, each having an inner end for joining to the fuselage and each of said wing halves including at least one projection and at least one recess at its inner end, each of said recesses being undercut and each of said projections having an enlarged head closely receivable in a recess of the other wing half to form an interlocking joint therewith.

4. The wing assembly described in claim 3 wherein:

said wings are cambered; and including a fuselage having an upper surface for supporting the inner ends of said wing halves, said upper surface being convexly curved to match the camber of said wing halves at the inner ends thereof; and

means attached to said fuselage for resiliently urging the inner ends of each of said wing halves down against the upper surface of said fuselage.

5. The wing assembly described in claim 4 including:

a layer of tape located on top of said inner ends of said wings over the joint between them, whereby to resist lifting of one wing half off the fuselage upper surface and out of engagement with the other wing half.

6. The wing assembly described in claim 3 wherein:

said recesses and projections are formed so that the maximum shifting of said wing halves toward and away from each other is much less than the thickness of either wing half.

'7. The wing assembly described in claim 6 wherein:

said wings are constructed of a resilient material and said projections and recesses form an interference fit to prevent any free shifting of the wing halves toward and away from each other.

8. The wing assembly described in claim 3 wherein:

at least one of said wing halves has an inner end which includes a pair of laterally spaced projections with enlarged heads forming the walls of an undercut recess between them.

9. Wing apparatus for a toy airplane comprising:

a wing having a pair of wing sections with interfitting inner ends, said inner ends located at the middle of the wing, the inner end of a first of said wing sections defining a pair of laterally spaced projections, each projection having a narrow neck and an enlarged head which is wider than the neck, and the supporting surface and a positive dihedral out therefrom; and including at least one elastic member, and means on said fuselage for mounting said elastic member so it extends diagonally over said inner end portions of said wing halves.

l l. The wing assembly described in claim 9 wherein:

said projections and recesses are formed to closely interfit so to substantially prevent movement of the wings toward one another.

* i It 

1. A wing assembly for a toy airplane comprising: a fuselage, a pair of wing halves, each having an inner end for joining to the fuselage, a first of said wing halves including a pair of projections extending toward the second wing half, each projection having a laterally extending ear at its end, and the other wing half having at least two undercut slots which closely receive said laterally extending ears to prevent separation of the wing halves.
 2. The wing assembly described in claim 1 wherein: each of said projections includes a pair of laterally extending ears, and each of said slots is undercut on each side of its deepest part to closely receive said ears of said projections.
 3. A wing assembly for a toy airplane comprising: a fuselage, a pair of wing halves, each having an inner end for joining to the fuselage, and each of said wing halves including at least one projection and at least one recess at its inner end, each of said recesses being undercut and each of said projections having an enlarged head closely receivable in a recess of the other wing half to form an interlocking joint therewith.
 4. The wing assembly described in claim 3 wherein: said wings are cambered; and including a fuselage having an upper surface for supporting the inner ends of said wing halves, said upper surface being convexly curved to match the camber of said wing halves at the inner ends thereof; and means attached to said fuselage for resiliently urging the inner ends of each of said wing halves down against the upper surface of said fuselage.
 5. The wing assembly described in claim 4 including: a layer of tape located on top of said inner ends of said wings over the joint between them, whereby to resist lifting of one wing half off the fuselage upper surface and out of engagement with the other wing half.
 6. The wing assembly described in claim 3 wherein: said recesses and projections are formed so that the maximum shifting of said wing halves toward and away from each other is much less than the thickness of either wing half.
 7. The wing assembly described in claim 6 wherein: said wings are constructed of a resilient material and said projections and recesses form an interference fit to prevent any free shifting of the wing halves toward and away from each other.
 8. The wing assembly described in claim 3 wherein: at least one of said wing halves has an inner end which includes a pair of laterally spaced projections with enlarged heads forming the walls of an undercut recess between them.
 9. Wing apparatus for a toy airplane comprising: a wing having a pair of wing sections with interfitting inner ends, said inner ends located at the middle of the wing, the inner end of a first of said wing sections defining a pair of laterally spaced projections, each projection having a narrow neck and an enlarged head which is wider than the neck, and the space between the projection forming a recess with a constricted throat and an enlarged bottom region, and the inner end of a second of said wing sections having a projection and a pair of recesess on either side of the projection thereof formed to interlock with the first wing section.
 10. The wing apparatus described in claim 9 including: a fuselage with a wide wing-supporting surface; and wherein: said wing halves have a zero dihedral along their inner end portions which rest on said wing-supporting surface and a positive dihedral out therefrom; and including at least one elastic member, and means on said fuselage for mounting said elastic member so it extends diagonally over said inner end portions of said wing halves.
 11. The wing assembly described in claim 9 wherein: said projections and recesses are formed to closely interfit so to substantially prevent movement of the wings toward one another. 